International Journal of Solids and Structures 121 (2017) 191–200

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International Journal of Solids and Structures

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijsolstr

Closed form solutions of a multi-cracked circular arch under static

loads
F. Cannizzaro∗, A. Greco, S. Caddemi, I. Caliò
Dipartimento Ingegneria Civile e Architettura, Università di Catania, Via Santa Sofia 64, Catania, Italy

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Generalised functions have been widely adopted in structural mechanics to treat singularities of beam-
Received 5 April 2016 like structures. However due to the curved geometry, that couples axial and transversal displacements,
Revised 20 April 2017
their use has never been explored for curved beams. In this paper the capability of distributions of lead-
Available online 22 May 2017
ing to closed form exact solutions for multi-cracked circular arch is shown. The exact closed-form solu-
Keywords: tion of a circular Euler arch in presence of any number of discontinuities due to concentrated damage and
Closed form solution subjected to an arbitrary distribution of static loads is obtained. Damage, under the form of concentrated
Curved beams cracks, has been modeled through the widely adopted and validated equivalent elastic hinge concept and
Circular arch has been introduced in the governing differential equations by making use of Dirac’s delta functions. The
Concentrated damage resulting nontrivial generalised six order differential equations have been derived and solved in closed
Cracked arch form. Independently of the number of along arch concentrated cracks, the solution is expressed as a func-
Generalised functions
tion of six integration constants only in which the damage positions and intensities are given data ap-
pearing explicitly in the solution expression. This latter aspect constitutes a fundamental aid towards the
resolution of the static damage inverse identification problem. The results have been validated through
some comparisons with finite element numerical simulations: examples referred to multi-cracked Euler
arches with different boundary conditions, damage and load scenarios are presented.
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Euler-Bernoulli curved beams neglecting both the axial deforma-

Arch structures are extensively used in many engineering fields
(for example in bridges, vaults, aircraft fuselages, turbines, etc..)
because they efficiently transfer loads by the combined action of
bending and stretching. Their study has therefore always attracted
considerable attention in the scientific literature.
Both the static and the dynamic behaviour of arch structures
have been widely studied by many authors. Pioneer studies date
back to the work of Den Hartog (1928) and Love (1944) but
the subject is highly topical and extremely studied also in the
present days. A fundamental review article has been published by
Chidamparam and Leissa (1993) and takes into account more than
400 references.
The largest part of these publications deal with circular arches
(Chidamparam and Leissa, 1995; Caliò et al., 2014), nevertheless
some studies have been presented with regard to the static and
dynamic behaviour of arches with variable curvature (Pau et al.,
2011; Greco and Pau, 2011). The arches are often considered as
∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: francesco.cannizzaro@dica.unict.it, fcannizz@dica.unict.it
Cannizzaro).
bility and shear effects. The influence of centerline extensibility on
the free vibrations of arches has been investigated by many au-
thors (Chidamparam and Leissa, 1995; Matsunaga, 1996). Other ef-
fects, such as rotary inertia and shear deformability have been also
extensively studied (Caliò et al., 2014; Issa et al., 1992; Tüfekçi and
Arpaci, 1998).
The presence of concentrated damage in beam-like, either
straight or curved, structures implies a loss of the structural stiff-
ness inducing variation of both static and dynamic responses
(Dimarogonas, 1996; Chondros and Dimarogonas, 1998; Caddemi et
al., 2013a, b; Ostachowicz and Krawczuk, 1991). These effects can
be often expressed through material discontinuities macroscopi-
cally revealed as edge cracks.
Most of the studies on cracked arches have been devoted to the
analysis of the dynamic behaviour, with only a few of them dealing
with the static problem (Viola et al., 2003; Karaagac et al., 2011).
The in plane vibrations of damaged circular arches have been stud-
ied by many authors (Viola et al., 2007; Öz and Das, 2006; Cerri
and Ruta, 2004; Howson and Jemah, 1999; Tounsi et al., 2012); for
example by Viola et al. (2007) by applying the differential quadra-
ture technique and by Öz and Das (2006) using the finite element
(F.
method. Investigation of the out-of-plane dynamic behaviour of

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsolstr.2017.05.026
0020-7683/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
192 F. Cannizzaro et al. / International Journal of Solids and Structures 121 (2017) 191–200
arches has been in the past object of additional studies (Caliò et
al., 2014; Howson et al., 1999; Huang et al., 20 0 0).
Many damage models have been presented in the literature
aiming at describing the variation of the flexural stiffness of the
beam in the vicinity of the crack. In particular, a stiffness reduction
due to the presence of a crack with an exponential variation law
along the entire beam length, i.e. not restricted to a local influence,
has been proposed by Christides and Barr (1984). On the contrary,
a stiffness reduction with a local effect governed by a triangular
variation has been proposed by Sinha et al. (2002). Furthermore,
Cerri and Vestroni (2003) proposed a constant stiffness reduction,
due to a concentrated crack, limited to an effective length around
the crack.
The most widely adopted macroscopic way to treat the effect
of a crack in a straight or curved beam is the so-called equiva-
lent spring model, originally inspired by Irwin (Irwin, 1957a, b),
in which the concentrated damage is modeled by a reduction in
the rigidity of the beam at the correspondent abscissae described
by means of a rotational spring (Dimarogonas, 1996; Caddemi
and Caliò, 2009). This model, by suitably calibrating the rotational
spring stiffness based on fracture mechanics concepts, is able to
capture the slope discontinuity at the cross-sections where the
cracks occur.
In most of the cases the problem is based on the assumption
of a linear behaviour (i.e. the rotational spring stiffness is not sub-
jected to any variation) since cracks are supposed to remain open
during the response.
The assumption of open cracks is crucial in case of combined
application of static and dynamic loads. In fact, in the latter case
the reliability of the hypothesis depends strictly whether the static
deflection is larger than vibration amplitudes. A discussion on the
subject can be found in Dimarogonas et al. (2013); Chondros and
Dimarogonas (1989) and Chondros et al. (2001) where the problem
concerning the effect of coupling of bending and torsional vibra-
tion on the dynamics of damage elements is also evidenced.
However, the latter equivalent spring model has been also
proved to be efficacious in the treatment of non linear problems
due to the opening and closing of the cracks mainly in stability
and dynamic problems. If the crack undergoes a smooth transi-
tion phase between the open and closed state the model is de-
noted as “breathing crack”; otherwise, if the crack is considered
either fully open or fully closed the phenomenon is bi-linear and
is denoted as “switching crack”. An example of non linear vibra-
tions of straight beams with opening/closing cracks according to
the switching model can be found in Caddemi et al. (2010). In
the latter paper the opening/closing phenomenon is modeled by
changing the orthonormal basis of eigenvectors, obtained by the
beam with a variable number of open cracks, every time the sta-
tus of each crack changes. To solve the above mentioned non linear
problem in the case of circular arches, first, the linear problem un-
der the hypothesis of open cracks has to be fully understood.
Krawczuk and Ostachowicz (1997) presented a FEM model of
the arch with a crack and investigated on the effects of damage
location and length on the dynamic behaviour of the structure.
Many recent studies focus on the inverse problem which con-
cerns the detection of the presence of damage in straight or curved
structures. The most interesting application of these techniques
can be found in a health monitoring strategy, whereby the investi-
gation of the structural integrity is performed by identifying dam-
age using experimental data from non-destructive tests (Adams
et al., 1978; Pandey et al., 1991; Vestroni and Capecchi, 1996;
Zhao and DeWolf, 2005; Friswell, 2007; Morassi, 2008; Caddemi
and Caliò, 2014). Among the latter applications, the great majority
deals with the variation of dynamic characteristics, such as natu-
ral frequencies and mode shapes, others consider static quantities
(Caddemi and Morassi, 2011).
The most common strategies in the literature to deal with con-
centrated cracks require the enforcement of continuity conditions
at the cracked sections or the assemblage of finite elements and
therefore the computational effort increases with the number of
cracks.
Recently, with reference to multi-cracked straight beam-like
structures, several authors proposed methods which require solely
the enforcements of the external boundary conditions irrespec-
tively of the number of internal cracks (Caddemi et al., 2013a, b,
Caddemi and I. Caliò, 2013; Caddemi et al., 2013c, Caddemi et al.,
2014; Palmeri and Cicirello, 2011; Li, 2002; Caddemi and Caliò,
2008). Solutions are available in the literature for both the static
and the dynamic behaviour of multi-cracked beam.
In particular, Caddemi et al. (2013a) studied the static problem
making use of the stiffness reduction method while Palmeri and
Cicirello (2011) considered the same problem applying the flexi-
bility modeling. With reference to the buckling of multi-cracked
beams Li (2002) applied the transfer matrix method and Caddemi
and Caliò (2008) proposed the use of distribution theory.
Nevertheless, to the authors knowledge, the distributional the-
ory has never been applied to multi-cracked curved beams whose
geometry makes the problem more complex in view of the cou-
pling between axial and transversal displacements.
In this paper, the distributional theory is applied to the stat-
ics of the multi-cracked circular Euler–Bernoulli arch under the
hypothesis of open cracks. The sixth order differential equation is
derived and solved explicitly. The adoption of the generalised func-
tions to consider the presence of multiple cracks and concentrated
loads requires to solve a linear algebraic system of six equations
irrespectively of the number of singularities present along the arch
span to account for the specific boundary conditions. Damage po-
sitions and intensities simply assume the meaning of solution data
of the direct problem, this latter aspect constitutes a fundamental
aid toward the resolution of the static damage inverse identifica-
tion problem. The results have been numerically validated through
some comparisons with finite element numerical simulations in
which the cracks have been modeled by means of internal elas-
tic hinges. Some examples referred to multi-cracked Euler arches
with different boundary conditions, damage and load scenarios are
also presented.
2. In-plane governing equations of multi-cracked circular
arches
The governing equations of the in-plane behaviour of curved
beams are considered in this section. The latter governing equa-
tions are particularized to the case of circular arches with the
aim of introducing suitable distributional terms able to implicitly
embed the continuity conditions due to the presence of multiple
double-sided concentrated cracks. It will be assumed that the am-
plitude of the deformation is such as to maintain the cracks always
open. Such an assumption offers the great advantage to lead to a
linear formulation.
For the study of the in-plane displacements of curved beams
three variables must be taken into account i.e. the radial displace-
ment ur , the tangential displacement ut and the rotation of the
centroidal axis φ , whose sign convention, consistent with the lo-
cal versors r̄ and t̄ , has been reported in Fig. 1.
The curved element is subjected to external tangential ft , ra-
dial fr , moment m distributed loads. The sign convention for inter-
nal axial force N, shear force T and bending moment M are also
indicated in Fig. 1. Denoting with s the curvilinear abscissa and
r(s) the corresponding radius of curvature, the tangential, radial
and moment equilibrium equations of the curved beam shown in
 F. Cannizzaro et al. / International Journal of Solids and Structures 121 (2017) 191–200
Fig. 1. Curved beam: the adopted sign convention for kinematic and static compo-
nents.
Fig. 1 are:
dN T χ (ϑ ) =
− + ft (s ) = 0
ds r (s )
dT N In Eq. (6) the generalised curvature function χ (ϑ) is expressed
+ + f r (s ) = 0
ds r (s )
dM
+ m (s ) = T
ds
By adopting a zenithal angular coordinate ϑ ∈ (ϑa ,ϑb ), where
ϑa ,ϑb indicate the initial and final cross sections of the arch re-
spectively, assuming a constant value for the radius r (i.e. circu-
lar arch) and observing that ∂ ∂f (ss ) = 1r f I (ϑ ), where the apex I in-
dicates derivative with respect to ϑ, the equilibrium Eq. (1) can be
combined, by means of simple algebra, to formulate the following
third order derivative moment equation:
MIII (ϑ ) + MI (ϑ ) = ft (ϑ ) r 2 − frI (ϑ ) r 2 − m(ϑ ) r − mII (ϑ )r
For the case of a uniform cross-section arch, according to a lin-
ear elastic constitutive behaviour of the material, the bending mo-
ment can be related to the curvature function χ (ϑ) by means of
the flexural stiffness EJr as follows:
M (ϑ ) = E Jr χ (ϑ )
where E is the Young’s modulus of the material and Jr can be con-
sidered as a reduced moment of inertia of the cross-section de-
fined as follows (Baldacci, 1970):

r
Jr = y2 dA
A r−y
where A is the area of the cross section and y is an axis of sym-
metry for the cross section lying in the plane of the arch.
With the aim to focus our attention on the inextensible Bernoulli
circular arch the hypotheses of axial and shear rigidities are consid-
ered such that the following kinematic constraints for the bending
curvature χ (ϑ), the rotation ϕ (ϑ), the radial displacement ur (ϑ) and
the tangential displacement ut (ϑ) hold:
1 I
χ (ϑ ) = φ ( ϑ ), utI (ϑ ) = ur (ϑ ),
r useful result has been obtained by enriching the classical equation
1 
φ (ϑ ) = − ut (ϑ ) + utII (ϑ )
r rence of the effects of multiple cracks in terms of embedded conti-
In order to account for the presence of n concentrated cracks
at cross sections ϑi , i = 1, …, n in Eq. (2), a macroscopic approach
widely accepted in the literature, is here considered and suitably
implemented. According to the latter approach cracks can be mod-
eled by equivalent rotational springs connecting two adjacent seg-
ments of the beam, as also discussed in Dimarogonas (1996) and
Caddemi and Caliò (2009). The introduction of rotational springs
implies the occurrence of abrupt variations of the rotation func-
tion ϕ (ϑ) under the form of concentrated rotation discontinuities
ϕ i = ϕ + (ϑi ) − ϕ − (ϑi ), where apexes + and – denote the value of
193
the rotation function at the right and the left of the cracked cross-
section ϑi , respectively.
Differently from previously adopted formulations of the same
authors for the case of straight beams, instead of modeling the ef-
fect of the concentrated crack as a local reduction of the flexural
stiffness (Caddemi and Caliò, 2009; Caddemi and Caliò, 2008), here
the unknown rotation discontinuities ϕ i are explicitly inserted in
the governing equation that is derived in what follows by mak-
ing use of the theory of distributions (generalised functions). The
adoption of the theory of distributions allows to maintain the defi-
nition of the governing differential equations, in presence of cracks,
over the entire domain ϑ ∈ (ϑa ,ϑb ) as the undamaged arch.
In view of the relationship between curvature and rotation
function in Eq. (5), the following distributional expression for the
curvature is here adopted:
 
1 
n
χ cont (ϑ ) + φ (ϑi )δ (ϑ − ϑi ) (6)
r
i=1
by the superposition of a sequence of Dirac’s delta distributions
δ (ϑ − ϑi ) to a continuous function denoted as χ cont (ϑ). The Dirac’s
(1) delta δ (ϑ − ϑi ) distribution represents the distributional derivative
of the well known unit step Heaviside generalised function de-
noted in what follows as U(ϑ − ϑi ). It can be observed that accord-
ing to this model the generalised expression of the curvature is
defined in the entire domain ϑ ∈ (ϑa ,ϑb ), as for the continuous
arch, accounting for the abrupt discontinuities of the rotation at
the cracked cross sections.
In view of the adopted generalised model the continuous bend-
ing moment can be obtained by Eq. (3) by adopting the curvature
(2) expression in Eq. (6) purged of the discontinuous terms. Substitut-
ing Eq. (3) into Eq. (2), in view of the kinematic relationships in Eq.
(5), leads to the following sixth order derivative differential equa-
tion in terms of tangential displacement ut (ϑ) defined in the space
of distributions as follows:

n
(3) ut V I (ϑ ) + 2ut IV (ϑ ) + utII (ϑ ) = q(ϑ ) − r φ ( ϑ i ) δ I ( ϑ − ϑ i )
i=1

n
−r φ ( ϑ i ) δ I I I ( ϑ − ϑ i ) (7)
i=1
(4) where the external load is represented by the term q(ϑ) defined as
follows:
1  I  1  
q (ϑ ) = f r (ϑ ) − ft (ϑ ) r 4 + m(ϑ ) + mII (ϑ ) r 3 (8)
E Jr E Jr
Eq. (7) represents the governing equilibrium equation of a
multi-cracked Euler inextensible circular arch subjected to static
loads. Differently from the classical approach, in which the dis-
continuities due to the concentrated damage have to be taken
into account by imposing the internal boundary conditions at each
cracked cross section, Eq (7) proposes an all in one expression. This
(5) with the presence of distributional terms to account for the occur-
nuity conditions through the use of generalised functions. It can be
immediately recognised that neglecting the terms with the sum-
mations extended to the n cracks and the external moment distri-
bution terms Eq. (7) leads to the classical formulation as treated by
Chidamparam and Leissa for the case of undamaged circular arch
under its own weight (Chidamparam and Leissa, 1995).
The distributional terms included in the summations in Eq.
(7) contain the unknown rotation discontinuities ϕ (ϑi ) at the
cracked cross-sections to be written in terms of the tangential dis-
placement ut (ϑ) in order to devise a solution procedure.
194 F. Cannizzaro et al. / International Journal of Solids and Structures 121 (2017) 191–200

Assuming that the amplitude of the deformation is such as to
maintain the crack always open, the assumed model offers the
great advantage to be linear and therefore leading to efficient for-
mulations. A mechanical justification of the macroscopic model of
rotational elastic spring, commonly used to describe the presence
of an open crack in a beam under bending deformation, has been
provided in Caddemi and Morassi (2013). This model has been al-
ready adopted also for arch structures in Cerri and Ruta (2004) and
experimentally validated in Pau et al. (2011) and Cerri et al. (2008).
According to the rotational spring model, equivalent to a concen-
trated open crack, the rotation discontinuities ϕ (ϑi ) are linearly
dependent on the bending moment at the cracked cross-sections
ϑi . Henceforth, the following expression is adopted:
3. Integration of the governing equations of multi-cracked
circular arches: closed-form solution
Integration of Eq. (13) is pursued in this section by account-
ing for a particular integral and by means of an additional strategy
to deal with the parametric distributional terms. Furthermore, the
solution will be particularized to the most common types of load,
such as uniformly distributed and concentrated loads. Finally, the
boundary conditions to be imposed for the evaluation of the in-
tegration constants appearing in the solution, according to various
external constraints, will be formulated.
Solution of Eq. (13) can be represented as the sum of the gen-
eral solution ut (ϑ ) and a particular solution ut (ϑ ):
g p

φ (ϑi ) = M (ϑi )/Kieq (9) ut (ϑ ) = utg (ϑ ) + utp (ϑ ) (14)

The general solution ut (ϑ ) is the solution to the following

g
eq
where Ki is the rotational stiffness of the equivalent spring to
be calibrated according to a chosen local flexibility model among equation:
those proposed in the literature, some of them summarized in Ap-
ut V I (ϑ ) + 2ut IV (ϑ ) + utII (ϑ ) = q(ϑ ) (15)
pendix D of Caddemi and Caliò (2009).
ut (ϑ )
p
The bending moment, evaluated at the left of the cracked cross- while is a solution to:
section ϑi− to avoid the singular value of the curvature function, is
provided, in view of Eqs. (3) and (5) as follows: 
n    
ut V I (ϑ ) + 2ut IV (ϑ ) + utII (ϑ ) = λi utI ϑi− + utIII ϑi−
 EJ EJ   i=1
 
M ϑi− = E Jr χ (ϑi− ) = r φ I (ϑi− ) = − 2r utI (ϑi− ) + utIII (ϑi− ) × δ I (ϑ − ϑi ) + δ III (ϑ − ϑi ) (16)
r r
(10)
A particular integral ut (ϑ ) is of the form:
p

The unknown rotation discontinuities ϕ (ϑi ) appearing in the


n    
governing Eq. (7) can hence be written in terms of the tangential utp (ϑ ) = λi utI ϑi− + utIII ϑi− h̄i (ϑ ) (17)
displacement ut (ϑ), in view of Eqs. (9) and (10) as follows: i=1

λi  I    as can be verified by substitution of Eq. (17), and its distribu-

φ ( ϑ i ) = − ut ϑi− + utIII ϑi− (11)
r tional derivatives up to the sixth order, in Eq. (13), where h̄i (ϑ ) =
[1 − cos (ϑ − ϑi )]U (ϑ − ϑi ), i = 1, . . . , n.
where λi represents the dimensionless crack compliance related to
On the other hand the general solution ut (ϑ ) is obtained by
g
the stiffness of the equivalent rotational spring by the relation:
solving Eq. (15) as the sum of the homogeneous solution uth (ϑ )
and a particular integral ut (ϑ ) due to the external load as follows:
q
E Jr
λi = (12)
r Kieq
utg (ϑ ) = uth (ϑ ) + utq (ϑ ) (18)
In view of Eq. (11), the governing equation in terms of tangen-
tial displacement of a circular arch in presence of n concentrated The homogeneous solution uth (ϑ ) is given as:
cracks provided by Eq. (7) can be reformulated as follows:
uth (ϑ ) = C1 h1 (ϑ ) + C2 h2 (ϑ ) + C3 h3 (ϑ ) + C4 h4 (ϑ )
ut (ϑ ) + 2ut (ϑ ) +
VI IV
(ϑ )
utII +C5 h5 (ϑ ) + C6 h6 (ϑ ) (19)

n  I  
= q (ϑ ) + λi ut ϑi −
+ utIII ϑ i
−
δ ( ϑ − ϑi )
I where Cj , j = 1, …, 6, are integration constants and the functions
i=1 hj (ϑ), j = 1, …, 6 are given as follows:

n     h1 ( ϑ ) = 1 , h2 ( ϑ ) = ϑ , h3 (ϑ ) = sin ϑ ,
+ λi utI ϑi− + utIII ϑi− δ III (ϑ − ϑi ) (13)
i=1 h4 (ϑ ) = cos ϑ , h5 (ϑ ) = ϑ cos ϑ
Formulation of Eq. (13) has been possible by using the gen- h6 ( ϑ ) = ϑ sin ϑ . (20)
eralised functions able to capture, consistently with the adopted For the case of a uniform vertical load q̄ of gravitational type,
macroscopic crack model, the rotation discontinuities occurring in absence of distributed external moment m(ϑ) = 0, the tangen-
at the cracked cross-sections. Precisely, the relevant distributional tial and radial distributed load components are ft (ϑ ) = q̄ sin ϑ ,
terms on the right hand side are of the parametric type in that fr (ϑ ) = q̄ cos ϑ , respectively. The load term q(ϑ) defined in Eq.
they depend on the values of the first and third derivatives of (8) takes the form q(ϑ ) = − E2Jr q̄ r 4 sin ϑ . A particular integral
the unknown transversal displacement function ut (ϑ). The form of
ut (ϑ ) for the latter type of distributed load writes:
q
the multi-cracked circular arch governing equation proposed in Eq.
(13) has been made suitable for closed-form integration derived in 2 4

7 15 1

the next section. utq (ϑ ) = − q̄r ϑ + ϑ cos ϑ − sin ϑ + ϑ 2 sin ϑ (21)
E Jr 8 8 8
For completeness and benefit of the reader, the equivalence be-
tween the proposed distributional approach and the standard ap- For the case of point loads Pi , i = 1, …, nP , concentrated
proach, which makes use of the enforcement of the continuity and at cross-sections ϑPi , the tangential and radial components are
n n
jump conditions at the cracked sections, is provided in the Ap- ft (ϑ ) = i P Pi sin αPi δ (ϑ − ϑPi ), fr (ϑ ) = i P Pi cos αPi δ (ϑ − ϑPi ),
pendix reported at the end of the paper. respectively, where αPi denotes the angle of the load direction with
 F. Cannizzaro et al. / International Journal of Solids and Structures 121 (2017) 191–200 195

Table 1
Clamped, hinged and free-end boundary conditions.

Kinematic and natural boundary condition

Clamped end ut (ϑr ) = 0;

ur ( ϑ r ) = 0; → utI (ϑr ) = 0;
φ ( ϑr ) = 0 → utII (ϑr ) = 0
Hinged end ut (ϑr ) = 0;
ur ( ϑ r ) = 0; → utI (ϑr ) = 0;
M ( ϑr ) = 0; → utIII (ϑr ) = 0;
Free end N ( ϑr ) = 0; → uVt (ϑr ) + utIII (ϑr ) = 0
T ( ϑr ) = 0; → utIV (ϑr ) + utII (ϑr ) = 0
M ( ϑr ) = 0; → utIII (ϑr ) + utI (ϑr ) = 0

utIII (ϑi− ) = C1 hI1II (ϑi− ) + C2 hI2II (ϑi− ) + C3 hI3II (ϑi− )

Fig. 2. Single cracked arch: geometrical scheme and load pattern.

+C4 hI4II (ϑi− ) + C5 hI5II (ϑi− ) + C6 hI6II (ϑi− ) + hI7II (ϑi− )

the radial direction, see Fig. 2. In this case the load term q(ϑ) de- 
n  
fined in Eq. (8) takes the form:
+ λi utI (ϑi− ) + utIII (ϑi− ) h̄IiII (ϑi− )
i=1
 
1 
nP
 
nP
 (26)
q (ϑ ) = Pi cos αPi δ ϑ − ϑPi −
I
Pi sin αPi δ ϑ − ϑPi r3
E Jr The first and third distributional derivatives of the tangen-
i=1 i=1
tial displacement function ut (ϑ) evaluated at ϑi− , given by Eqs.
(22) (25) and (26), respectively, can be transformed, after some algebra,
ut (ϑ )
q in explicit form as follows:
A particular integral for the load term in Eq. (22), repre-
senting point loads applied along the axis of a circular arch, is the 
6
following: utI (ϑi− ) = C j g j (ϑi− ) + g7 (ϑi− ) (27)
r 3 
nP 1
j=1
utq (ϑ ) = Pi cosαPi 1 − cos(ϑ − ϑPi ) − (ϑ − ϑPi )
E Jr 2 
6
i=1
 utIII (ϑi− ) = C j p j (ϑi− ) + p7 (ϑi− ) (28)
sin(ϑ − ϑPi ) U (ϑ − ϑPi ) j=1

r3 
nP 3 where the terms g j (ϑi− ), p j (ϑi− ) j = 1, . . . , 7, are defined by the
− Pi sinαPi (ϑ − ϑPi ) − sin(ϑ − ϑPi ) following expressions:
E Jr 2
i=1
 i−1
  
1 g j (ϑi− ) = hIj (ϑi− ) + λk g j (ϑk− ) + p j (ϑk− ) h̄Ik (ϑi− ) (29)
+ (ϑ − ϑPi )cos(ϑ − ϑPi ) U (ϑ − ϑPi ) (23)
2 k=1

Eqs. (14) and (18) in view of the solutions in Eqs. (17) and (19) i−1
  
provide the following expression of the transversal displacement p j (ϑi− ) = hIjII (ϑi− ) + λk g j (ϑk− ) + p j (ϑk− ) h̄IkII (ϑi− ) (30)
function ut (ϑ): k=1

ut (ϑ ) = C1 h1 (ϑ ) + C2 h2 (ϑ ) + C3 h3 (ϑ ) + C4 h4 (ϑ ) + C5 h5 (ϑ ) Substitution of Eqs. (27) and (28) into Eq. (24) provides the fol-
lowing explicit expression of the tangential displacement:
+C6 h6 (ϑ ) + h7 (ϑ )

n     ut (ϑ ) = C1 f1 (ϑ ) + C2 f2 (ϑ ) + C3 f3 (ϑ ) + C4 f4 (ϑ ) + C5 f5 (ϑ )
+ λi utI ϑi− + utIII ϑi− h̄i (ϑ ) (24) +C6 f6 (ϑ ) + f7 (ϑ ) (31)
i=1
where the functions fj (ϑ), j = 1, …, 7, are defined by the following
where for simplicity of notation the following position has been in-
expressions:
troduced h7 (ϑ ) = ut (ϑ ), i.e. the load dependent term ut (ϑ ), pro-
q q

vided by Eqs. (21) or (23) according to the type of external load, 

n  
f j (ϑ ) = h j (ϑ ) + λi g j (ϑi− ) + p j (ϑi− ) h̄i (ϑ ) (32)
has been renamed h7 (ϑ).
i=1
The integration constants C1 ,C2 ,C3 ,C4 ,C5 ,C6 , appearing in Eq.
(24) are to be determined according to specified boundary condi- The radial displacement and rotation functions can be easily ob-
tions dependent on the external constraints acting on the circular tained, in view of the solution provided in Eq. (31), by means of
arch. the kinematic constraints expressed by Eq. (5).
The solution, as it stands in Eq. (24), does not provide an The advantage of the closed-form solution of the multi-cracked
explicit expression for the tangential displacement function ut (ϑ) circular arch presented in Eq. (31) is that the enforcement of
since it depends on the values of its first and third distributional the boundary condition can be performed at the two end cross-
derivatives utI (ϑ ), utIII (ϑ ) evaluated at ϑi− . The latter can be ex- sections ϑa ,ϑb of the arch, without considering continuity condi-
pressed by differentiating Eq. (24)itself with respect to ϑ as fol- tions at the cracked sections. Therefore, the solution of the multi-
lows: cracked arch can be always obtained by solving a system of six
algebraic equations, irrespectively of the number of cracks.
utI (ϑi− ) = C1 hI1 (ϑi− ) + C2 hI2 (ϑi− ) + C3 hI3 (ϑi− ) + C4 hI4 (ϑi− ) Each of the two end cross-sections provides three boundary
+C5 hI5 (ϑi− ) + C6 hI6 (ϑi− ) conditions depending on the kinematic and mechanical conditions
of the restraint. By considering the generic end of the arch, char-

n  
+hI7 (ϑi− ) + λi utI (ϑi− ) + utIII (ϑi− ) h̄Ii (ϑi− ) (25) acterized by the abscissa ϑr , r = a, b, the corresponding boundary
i=1 conditions are summarized in Table 1, depending on the applied
restraint typology.
196 F. Cannizzaro et al. / International Journal of Solids and Structures 121 (2017) 191–200

Table 2
Geometric and mechanical properties of the single cracked arch shown in Fig. 3.

Cracks ϑi λι K ι [kN/cm] γ [kN/m3 ] Concentrated loads Pi [kN] ϑP , i α P,i

1 0 1 16,668 7.5 × 10−3 1 50 −π /4 −π /4
2 25 π /4 3∗ π /4

Table 3
Geometric and mechanical properties of the multi-cracked arch shown in Fig. 5.

Cracks ϑi λι K ι [kN/cm] γ [kN/m3 ] Concentrated loads Pi [kN] ϑP , i α P,i

1 −π /2 0.2 83,338 2.5 × 10−3 1 50 −π /4 −π /4
2 −π /4 1 16,668 2 40 −π /6 −π /6
3 0 0.3 55,559 3 25 π /10 3∗ π /5
4 π /8 0.5 33,335
5 π /6 0.8 20,835

4. Numerical applications

In this section various numerical applications aiming at vali-

dating the proposed closed-form solution and showing the advan-
tages of its use are reported. The applications here reported are
focused on single and multi-cracked arches subjected to concen-
trated and distributed loads. The results are contrasted to those
obtained with a standard finite element approach by using the well
known code SAP20 0 0 (CSI Analysis Reference 2007), in this latter
case the cracks have been modeled by considering an equivalent
elastic hinge for each cracked cross section.

4.1. Single cracked arch

In this sub-section an application regarding a clamped-clamped

single cracked full circular arch is reported. The radius of the
arch is r = 500 cm, the cross section is rectangular with a base
b = 5 cm and a height h = 10 cm while the Young’s modulus is
E = 20 0 0 0 kN/cm2 . The arch is characterized by the presence of a
crack located in the section ϑi = 0 and subjected to its self weight
(characterized by the density γ ) and two concentrated loads lo-
cated at ϑP,1 = −π /4, ϑP,2 = π /4. The geometrical scheme of the arch
is summarized in Fig. 2.
The characteristics of the loads and the cracks are summarized
in Table 2.
The results of the analyses are reported in Figs. 3 and 4. First,
the tangential and the radial displacements are reported as a func-
tion of the angle ϑ in Fig. 3a and b. It is worth to notice that
the tangential displacement function is continuous while the radial
displacement function shows a sharp point at the cracked section.
The rotation function is reported in Fig. 3c showing, as expected, a
discontinuity at the cracked section.
In Fig. 4 the results obtained by the present approach and
through the FEM simulations are compared in terms of deformed
shape (Fig. 4a), axial force (Fig. 4b), bending moment (Fig. 4c), and
shear force (Fig. 4d). It can be observed a very good agreement
between the two different strategies.
Fig. 3. Response of the discontinuous single cracked arch: (a) tangential displace-
4.2. Multi-cracked arch ment function; (b) radial displacement function and (c) rotation function.

In this sub-section the case of a multi-cracked arch subjected

to both concentrated and distributed loads is considered. The ra-
dius of the arch, the cross section and the Young’s modulus are
the same of the example reported in Section 4.1. Nevertheless, the
boundary conditions, the geometric scheme, the load pattern and
the cracks location are different and indicated in Fig. 5.
The properties of the arch in terms of crack locations, intensi-
ties and load scenario are summarized in Table 3.
It is worth to notice that the present formulation allows to con-
sider concentrated loads without the need to enforce continuity
conditions. As a matter of fact in this case 8 discontinuities are
present, 5 given by the presence of cracks and 3 due to the pres-
ence of concentrated loads. Each crack implies a jump in the ro-
tation while each concentrated load implies a jump both in the
shear and the axial forces. With the aim to investigate the pres-
ence of different boundary conditions the first end is clamped and
the second one is pinned; as a further difference with respect to
the first numerical application the geometrical scheme of the arch
is not symmetric. Furthermore, one of the cracks is located in cor-
respondence with the first end, while at the cross section ϑ = −π /4
there is the co-presence of a crack and a concentrated vertical load.
 F. Cannizzaro et al. / International Journal of Solids and Structures 121 (2017) 191–200 197

Fig. 4. Response of the discontinuous single cracked arch: (a) deformed shape; (b) axial force; (c) bending moment; (d) shear force.

Fig. 5. Multi-cracked arch: geometrical scheme and load pattern.

The static response of the arch is reported in Figs. 6 and 7.

Again, the tangential and the radial displacements are reported, as
a function of the angle ϑ, in Fig. 6a and b. The rotation function, re-
ported in Fig. 6c, shows four discontinuities corresponding to the
cracked sections along the span of the arch, while the rotation at
the cross section ϑ = −π /2 is not zero because of the presence of
the crack at the first end cross-section.
In Fig. 7 the results obtained by means of the present approach
are compared to those obtained by the FEM simulations. A com-
prehensive representation of the deformed shape is reported as
well as the axial force, shear force and bending moment. It is
worth to notice that the discontinuities in the shear and axial
forces are due to the presence of concentrated loads.

5. Conclusions

The paper deals with the problem of multi-cracked circular

arches under static loads. The governing equation has been pro-
posed under a suitable form embedding the effect of multiple con-
centrated cracks by making use of a generalised function modeling.
Fig. 6. Response of the discontinuous multi cracked arch: (a) tangential displace-
The main aim of the work is the formulation of a general closed- ment function; (b) radial displacement function and (c) rotation function.
form solution of the problem avoiding any continuity condition at
198 F. Cannizzaro et al. / International Journal of Solids and Structures 121 (2017) 191–200
Fig. 7. Response of the discontinuous multi cracked arch: (a) deformed shape; (b) axial force; (c) bending moment and (d) shear force.
the cracked cross-sections by making use of a generalised function
modeling. The presented solution extends to circular arches previ-
ous findings concerning rectilinear beams in presence of concen-
trated damages. The convenient expression of the solution allows
to study circular beams in presence of multiple cracks by enforc-
ing six boundary conditions only, thus avoiding the introduction
of additional integration constants due to the presence of cracks.
Parametric analyses and study of the response of damaged cir-
cular arches become more advantageous with the proposed solu-
tion with respect to classical formulations. As a matter of example
some numerical applications have been conducted to implement
the solution and validate the model by comparing the results with
a classic FEM approach.
The proposed approach represents a fundamental step towards
the analysis of circular arches in case of combined application of
static and dynamic loads. In fact, in the latter case the assump-
tion of open cracks, adopted throughout the paper, depends strictly
whether the static deflection is larger than vibration amplitudes.
Precisely, the presented procedure, besides filling a gap in the
literature to obtain closed form solutions for the linear problem of
circular arches with multiple open cracks, is the starting point for
the extension to study vibrations of damaged arches, first, and suc-
cessively to address the nonlinear problem due to opening/closing
of cracks.
APPENDIX. Approach
In this appendix it will be proved that starting from the stan-
dard approach to circular arches in presence of cracks the proposed
distributional approach is recovered. For simplicity the case of a
single crack is treated since the generalization to multiple cracks
is straightforward.
The governing equations of a circular arch in presence of sin-
gle crack at abscissa ϑo , by using regular functions and imposing
continuity and jump conditions at the cracked cross section can be
formulated as follows:
 φ˜ I (ϑ ) = φ I (ϑ ) + φ (ϑo )δ (ϑ − ϑo )
ut V I (ϑ ) + 2ut IV (ϑ ) + utII (ϑ ) = q(ϑ )
ut (ϑo ) = utI (ϑo ) = 0 in ϑ ∈ (ϑa , ϑo ) ∪ (ϑo, ϑb )
φ (ϑo ) = M (ϑo− )/Keq
(A1)
bearing in mind that the tangential displacement ut (ϑ), the rotation
ϕ (ϑ) and the bending moment M(ϑ) functions are related to each
other according to the following relations:
1 
φ (ϑ ) = − ut (ϑ ) + utII (ϑ )
r
E Jr I
M (ϑ ) = φ (ϑ ) (A2)
r
In view of Eqs. (A1) and (A2) the following condition is ob-
tained φ (ϑo ) = − 1r [utII (ϑo )] that clearly identifies that the rota-
tion jump is related to a jump in the second derivative of the dis-
placement ut , that, if defined in the entire domain ϑ ∈ (ϑa ,ϑb ) may
be represented by a generalised function and the corresponding
differential equation has to be written in terms of distributional
derivatives as highlighted in what follows.
Aim of this appendix is to reformulate the problem in Eq.
(A1) in the distributional framework. To do so the intention is to
include both the continuity and the jump conditions at ϑo within
the differential equation which governs the bending deformation
of the cracked beam and formulate the problem of the cracked cir-
cular arch over a unique domain by making use of the theory of
generalised function.
The solution ut (ϑ) of the problem governed by Eqs. (A1) and
(A2) is expected to be a continuous function with continuous first
derivative utI (ϑ ), however, as imposed by the discontinuity condi-
tion in Eq. (A1), the rotation φ (ϑ) together with the second deriva-
tive utII (ϑ ) are discontinuous functions at ϑo .
Hence, to address this type of function, the concept of a dis-
tributional derivative f˜I (ϑ ), indicated with a superimposed tilde,
of a function f(ϑ) will now be considered as f˜I (ϑ ) = f I (ϑ ) +
 f (ϑo )δ (ϑ − ϑo ) where f(ϑo ) is the possible jump of f(ϑ) at ϑo
and δ (ϑ − ϑo ) is the Dirac’s delta function defined as the distribu-
tional derivative of the Heaviside unit step function.
The distributional derivatives φ˜ I (ϑ ) of the rotation function
φ (ϑ) having a discontinuity can hence be written as follows:
(A3)
or else in view of Eq. (A2):
1 I 
φ˜ I (ϑ ) = − u˜t (ϑ ) + u˜tIII (ϑ )
r
1 I 
= − ut (ϑ ) + utIII (ϑ ) + φ (ϑo )δ (ϑ − ϑo ) (A4)
r
 F. Cannizzaro et al. / International Journal of Solids and Structures 121 (2017) 191–200 199

Evaluation of Eq. (A4) at ϑo− (i.e. at the left cross section of the u˜Vt I (ϑ ) + 2u˜tIV (ϑ ) + u˜tII (ϑ )
discontinuity) leads to: 
n    
 1    = q (ϑ ) + λi u˜tI ϑi− + u˜tIII ϑi− δ I (ϑ − ϑi )
φ˜ ϑo
I −
= − u˜tI ϑo− + u˜tIII ϑo− i=1
r
1     
n  I  
= − utI ϑo− + utIII ϑo− = φ I ϑo− (A5) + λi u˜t ϑi− + u˜tIII ϑi− δ III (ϑ − ϑi ) (A12)
r i=1
Eq. (A5) allows to write the second of Eq. (A2) as follows: where λi represents the dimensionless crack compliance related to
 E Jr I  − E Jr ˜ I  −  the stiffness of the equivalent rotational spring by the relation λi =
M ϑo
−
= φ ϑo = φ ϑo = M˜ ϑo− (A6) E Jr
eq .
r r r Ki

Hence the discontinuity on the rotation function may also be writ- Eq. (A12) has been adopted in the main body of the manuscript
ten in terms of the distributional bending moment as follows to solve the problem of a circular arch with multiple cracks and re-
˜ (ϑo− )
M ported as in Eq. (13) where the superimposed tilde adopted in this
φ ( ϑ o ) = Keq and consequently Eq. (A4) takes the form:
appendix to indicate distributions has been omitted for simplicity
1 I  of notation.
φ˜ I (ϑ ) = − u˜ (ϑ ) + u˜tIII (ϑ )
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